The phenomenon when a person wants to eat something unusual is often found in everyday life. It can be ice, clay, paper or something else no less exotic. But the undisputed leader in changing food cravings is chalk. To verify this, just look at the forums. “Eat chalk!”, “I constantly think about it!” - these messages are very numerous, and they do not become smaller over time. Therefore, it is worthwhile to understand the causes of this phenomenon and whether it is so harmless to the human body.
Why you want to eat chalk
What happens in the body if it signals an imbalance in such an unusual way? When asked about why you want to eat chalk, doctors say that in the first place, this may indicate a decrease in hemoglobin level. Iron deficiency anemia occurs for various reasons: unbalanced diet, previous surgery, bleeding, taking certain medications, and chronic diseases. Therefore, if a person says “I eat chalk,” the first thing he needs to do is get a blood test that can help identify a lack of iron in the blood. According to statistics from the World Health Organization, about 2 billion people suffer from anemia. This disease develops when there is a difference between the body used and the iron that came with food. Very often, when a similar problem occurs, one diet will not be enough. Specially designed iron-containing preparations come to the rescue. Knowing this, a person who constantly wants to eat chalk should visit a doctor for diagnosis and treatment.
Iron deficiency anemia leads to the fact that the human body becomes defenseless against dangerous diseases. Therefore, one should not dismiss such a seemingly harmless symptom as a desire to gnaw a piece of chalk.
What you should pay attention to
If a person can say "I eat chalk!" About himself, other manifestations of iron deficiency anemia should alert him. Among them are pallor of skin, weakness, palpitations, decreased immunity, fragility of nails and hair, shortness of breath, unstable psycho-emotional background. Similar symptoms suggest that iron deficiency anemia is already of moderate severity, and you can not do without medical help.
Familiar stranger
In order to make sure that it is possible to eat chalk and how safe it is for the body, you need to understand what this substance is.
Chalk is a sedimentary rock of organic origin, one of the many types of limestone. The basis of the chalk is calcium carbonate (up to 98%), in addition to it, the composition of the chalk includes a small amount of magnesium carbonate and metal oxides. Chalk is insoluble in water.
This mineral is widely used in agriculture, in the production of paper and metals, sugar, glass and chemical industries. It has a lot of useful properties, but, unfortunately, it will not affect the iron deficiency in the blood in any way. Therefore, the question of whether it is possible to eat chalk with anemia, the answer lies in the advisability of this action, because eating calcium carbonate in no way contributes to the elimination of iron deficiency.
Other disorders in the body
In addition to anemia, there are still some abnormalities in the human body that can lead to a change in taste preferences. Violations of the liver or thyroid gland cause a calcium deficiency. With the incorrect functioning of this organ, a person may have a desire to eat chalk. This is explained by the fact that calcium in such conditions is excreted from the body faster than it comes with food.
Vitamin deficiency can also be the reason why you want to eat chalk. Calcium is absorbed by the human body only with a sufficient content of vitamins D, E and C. It is they that regulate the absorption of this microelement, its level in the blood and the intake of minerals in bone tissue and teeth. Therefore, even healthy people can experience an irresistible craving for eating chalk - so they compensate for the lack of calcium in the body.
While carrying a child
Well, who does not know about the cute eccentricities of women during pregnancy. Perhaps the desire to gnaw a piece of chalk is one of the most common. But is everything as harmless as it seems at first glance? If you want to eat chalk, what does it mean during pregnancy?
Studies show that even in perfectly healthy women in an “interesting” position, symptoms of calcium deficiency appear in 17% of cases. This is manifested in the form of muscle pain, a sensation of “crawling creeps”, muscle cramps. And in cases of pregnancy complicated by concomitant diseases, this percentage reaches 50. Calcium deficiency can cause the development of serious diseases such as osteoporosis and osteomalacia. Chronic deficiency of this microelement can lead to a delay in fetal development. Therefore, the expectant mother must necessarily receive the necessary amount of calcium, the norm of which is 1400-1500 mg per day.
How to avoid a deficiency of this important trace element? It should be noted that its greatest amount is contained in calcium carbonate, and this is chalk. Nevertheless, it is worth informing the obstetrician-gynecologist about unusual taste preferences so that he eliminates iron deficiency anemia using laboratory tests.
What chalk cannot be eaten
In order not to harm the body, you need to eat only the “right” calcium carbonate. But in order to find him, you will have to make some efforts. Neither a pharmacy nor a supermarket sells such a “product”. Neither clerical chalk, in which gypsum and glue is added for strength, nor building chalk, is suitable - it also has a lot of harmful additives. So what kind of chalk can you eat? If a person cannot do without such a “delicacy”, it is preferable to eat natural natural chalk, mined in quarries or extracted from rock — it does not have harmful impurities. Being an environmentally friendly natural product, it will make up for the calcium deficiency in the body in a natural way. Such chalk can be purchased in online stores.
Negative consequences
A small piece of chalk is unlikely to cause significant harm to the body. But a large amount of regularly eaten mineral can cause calcium to begin to be deposited in the kidneys and lungs. If taken uncontrollably for a long time, the mineral will accumulate in the pancreas, which can lead to the development of diabetes and pancreatitis. Violations of the cardiovascular system will not take long after several months of using chalk in large quantities. Kidney stones can also form due to the high calcium content. Therefore, before deciding whether to eat chalk, a person should know about the negative consequences of eating this product.
Diet adjustment
Knowing why you want to eat chalk, you can adjust the diet so that if you do not reduce this desire to zero, then significantly weaken it. It is necessary to eat foods rich in calcium and iron. These include: liver, veal, pomegranate, milk, cheeses, cottage cheese, sea fish, greens.